


Unwilling Emperor

by HanaHimus



Category: Persona | Revelations Persona
Genre: A mixture of characters/plots from the game and manga, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arcana Swap (Persona), Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-06 09:30:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14053971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HanaHimus/pseuds/HanaHimus
Summary: Reiji Kandori wasn't sure what kind of things would come from trying to prepare for a sports festival, but he was pretty sure demons attacking the town and his sick friend walking around as if nothing had happened weren't the usual... Well, as long as he got all his friends through this, it would be alright... Right?





	1. Prologue: Persona, Persona...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, arcana swaps are pretty neat... So is P1. So I made an arcana swap for P1... And based off people I asked about it, it's also gonna be sorta shippy bc self indulgence is fun-- Important notes about this swap at the end of the chapter?? Yeah!

“Persona?” Kei rose an eyebrow as the word filtered through the room, pulling everyone’s attention towards him and Yukino. “Yukino, if that sort of thing was real I’m sure I’d have made a fortune off seeing the future by now. Is there something wrong with your head?”

“There’s more to it than you would think! You don’t see the future or anything, but I know some weird things happened!” Yukino seemed to think for a moment. “I mean, if you  _ really  _ wanna argue, how about we put money on it?”

“My grandfather--” Kei cut himself off with an awkward cough. “I’ll bet you an all-you-can-eat dinner at the Peace Diner of Joy Street.”

“How fun, usually I’d try and side with Nanjo, but…” Hidehiko walked up next to Yukino. “I’m gonna have to go with Yukki for this one!”

“I think I have to go with Yukino too…” Maki gave Kei a sympathetic smile and the slightest shrug. “Sorry.”

“Are you serious…?” Kei turned to two of the remaining students. “Masao, Yuka… Where will you place your bets?”

Masao rolled his eyes. “I really don’t care. Both of you are being total idiots, there's no point in betting when the outcome is obvious.”

“No offense, but I gotta agree with Masao on this one, at least the first part.” Yuka shrugged. “It’s all on the rest of you to sort this out.”

“As unhelpful as always…” Kei turned his stare to the last person in the room. “Hey, what about you, Reiji? Who will you place a bet on?”

“Huh?” He blinked a few times, fingers moving to touch the scar on his head from nerves. “I guess I’ll bet on Kei. Wouldn’t be fair to make him pay for it all when he’s wrong.”

“Hey…!”

“Really?” Hidehiko rose an eyebrow and clicked his tongue. “Well... I guess it’s your money, Rei-chan.”

“Well, whatever. It makes it more fun this way…” Yukino cracked her fingers and looked around the room. “Alright. Maki, Hidehiko, Kei. All of you take whatever corners and I’ll take whichever is free!”

Hidehiko and Maki took no time moving into their respective corners, while Kei took his time, walking to the closest one to him. Looked like no one fully supporting him took the wind out of his sails… Reiji couldn’t help but feel bad, he could’ve left off the last part. Then again, he usually didn’t think that sort of thing through…

Yukino too her spot in the last corner and looked to Hidehiko. “Alright, go ahead and get us started!”

“Okay, I can do this…” Hidehiko paused for a second. “Persona! Persona! Come here!” With that, he walked next to Yukino, who wasted no time starting on the next part of the game.

“Persona! Persona! Please come here!” She walked over to Kei, arms crossed and a smile spread across her face.

“Do I really have to do this? Why couldn’t Reiji, he at least seemed to believe in it--”

“Come on, no rambling! Just hurry it up! You’re treating us all to dinner, after all.” Yukino slapped his back and Kei flinched. Reiji really was feeling horrible about this. He should've at least taken Kei's place...

“Fine… Persona, Persona. Come to us…” Kei rolled his eyes and started towards Maki. “I guess.”

“My turn…” Maki took a deep breath and smiled. “Persona, Persona! Please come say hi…” And with that, she walked to the spot Hidehiko had been standing, finishing up the game.

“Alright, things are about to get weird…” Yukino’s smile eventually faded as nothing happened. It looked like something went wrong with the game. That or it really just didn't do anything.

“Huh…” Reiji’s voice was the first to break the silence. “Maybe I made the right choice for the wrong reason…”

Hidehiko walked over to Yukino and shook her by the shoulder. “Yukino! Now we look like total idiots!”

“That really was pointless, looks like I win…” Kei fixed his glasses as he looked to Reiji. “But I wonder if you should be counted as part of my win.”

Reiji thought for a moment. “...If I’m counted, everyone who bet against you has to spend more money.”

“Reiji…” Maki stepped towards him with a frown. “Is that really--”

Yuka let out a sigh, cutting Maki off. “You guys got to play the game. Can we just get the teacher, already?”

“One minute! Kei paused and treated it like a joke while we were doing it, right?” Yukino poked a finger into his chest. “He probably messed it up by doing that! We have to try again!”

“Yukino, I think it’d be better to give it a rest.” Reiji really wasn’t in the mood for dealing with this more than he had to. He just kind of wanted to go home, in all honesty…

“You’re being a sore loser, Yukino.” By then, Kei had made his way to Reiji’s side. “Just admit--”

“H-hey Kei…” Masao cut him off, pointing towards the other end of the room. “You might wanna look behind you.”

“Oh, so now you’re trying to join in on… The...” Kei turned his head as he spoke and stopped upon seeing a little girl dressed in white, a purple bow in her hair. “What?!”

“I-is that a real kid…?” Hidehiko took a step back. “O-or is it something else?”

Maki didn’t move, instead just tilting her head to the side. “That’s… Different than last time. Last time it was just noises, right Yukino?”

“I-I  _ knew  _ something would happen if we gave it time…” Yukino swallowed hard. “This seems kind of different, though…”

The little girl sniffled as she looked at the group. “ _Help me… Help…”_

Before anyone could say anything, lightning seemed to erupt from the ceiling and the girl vanished. This wasn’t normal at all and, well, Reiji wasn’t sure what to do. Something like this was far from normal, so all he could think to do was shout out a ‘stay calm!’ to the group.

Too bad Masao, Kei, and Hidehiko yelling made it pretty clear that wasn’t going to be the case. Panic had already erupted among them… At least Maki seemed more interested in what was happening. Throw in the fact Yuka was trying to calm the group too and he thought they were going to make it through this... But then a bolt of lightning hit Yuka, causing her to gasp out in pain and crumple to the ground.

With yells, Kei and Masao went down too. Reiji wanted to try and help someone, anyone, but... Before he even had the chance to move He was expecting everything to just be black or feverish images and…

At first that was what it was. He expected to see the odd shapes and butterfly (if he wasn't so out of it, he might question that), but… Then he expected to wake up to everything being normal, maybe surrounded by worried friends... Instead, when everything seemed to steady itself out, he was face to face with some man in a mask…

“ _ Welcome… It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Philemon. A dweller between consciousness and unconsciousness. _ ” Reiji felt something was off about this all, it was like the man’s words were hitting his ears and echoing in his brain… Was this normal? “ _ And now, a simple test. Can you state your name? _ ”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I basically swapped 2 characters w each other, with one group of three. So we have...  
> Emperor!Reiji, Devil/Death!Naoya  
> Priestess!Eriko, Judgement!Maki  
> Chariot!Nanjo, Hierophant!Mark  
> Justice!Yukino, Empress!Yuka, Magician!Brown
> 
> This'll be a mix of the game and the manga, mostly because I wanted Reiji to stay related to Kandori? So the 'Kazuya' subplot from the manga will be here, but it's 'Takahisa' instead... And Kazuya will serve as the main human villain of the SEBEC story.
> 
> Outside those swaps, no one changes. If that changes in the future it will literally only be for a cameo character and the swap won't even be between P1 characters.
> 
> Due to the nature of Reiji and Takahisa's relation now being 'twins' we'll assume shit dad Kandori is not a shit dad... And thus, Reiji has the last name Kandori. Kazuya will have the last name "Narumi" to make sure the whole... Different last name thing is in place for that conflict.
> 
> Uhhhh. I like Reiji/Naoya so expect some of that??? As you can tell by my tags lmao--


	2. Chapter 1: Naoya Toudou

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter and I don't have much to say??? Besides... Naoya shows up, so that's fun haha--

Reiji listened to the rest of the masked man’s speech after giving his name. It was all so confusing to him, this Persona stuff didn’t make sense, but… He hadn’t had it in him to try and ask any questions about it. The man had already been so odd and he’d feared that any question would be ignored or throw him tumbling back into consciousness.

And he felt that was a reasonable thought, especially since he found himself bolting up in an infirmary bed as soon as the man had finished speaking to him. He glanced around and noted that Kei, Masao, and Yuka were there. Along with, of course, Nurse Natsumi.

“Oh, Reiji, you’ve come to.” She smiled at him and let out a laugh. “Welcome to the infirmary. You sure look cute when you’re asleep.”

Reiji frowned at her. “Please don’t make fun of me, ma’am--”

Before he could fully voice his displeasure at her tease, the door open and Ms. Saeko, his homeroom teacher, walked in. “Reiji, are you alright?!”

“Ms. Saeko… I’m fine…”

“Thank goodness you’re awake, Reiji!” She let out a relieved sigh, a hand on her chest. “I was so scared when I heard you collapsed!”

Reiji looked at his hands, hopefully she didn’t contact his parents… “Sorry.”

“Reiji…” Ms. Saeko moved to him and put a hand on his shoulder before turning to look at the nurse. “I’m sorry you had to deal with my students, Natsumi.”

“But isn’t it Nurse Natsumi’s job to take care of students?” Kei made a face. “I don’t see an issue with us being the ones she takes care of.”

“Now, now, Nanjo! I want you to think about what you’ve done!” She frowned at the boy before looking to the other three students. “Anyway, Maki and Uesugi told me what happened. No helping out for you today! Instead, go get yourselves checked out at Mikage Hospital and head home!”

“So you think we’re totally nuts too, huh?” Yuka frowned, arms crossed against her chest.

“Oh, not like that. I can tell by looking at you that you’re perfectly sane.” Ms. Saeko squeezed Reiji’s shoulder as she spoke. “But I’m worried you might have gotten hurt while collapsing, so go see the doc.”

“I never thought I’d see something faze you, Ms. Saeko…” Yuka looked away with a huff. “Fine, we’ll go.”

Nurse Natsumi cleared her throat to gain everyone’s attention. “Speaking of Mikage Hospital, wasn’t a student in your class staying there?”

“You mean Eriko, don’t you?” Kei was quick to catch onto just who she meant, huh?

“Yes, that’s right. You should visit her while you’re there.” Ms. Saeko’s hand moved from Reiji's shoulder to her chin. “She’s been laid up there for over a year now… I’m sure she’s lonesome.”

“Yeah… She must be.” Reiji grimaced at the thought. She’d been cooped up there and he hadn’t visited her once this past year… “I guess it’s a good thing this happened. At least for Eriko…”

“What were you doing that led to this, anyway? I asked you to prepare for the sports festival.” She sighed as she moved away from the bed and towards Nurse Natsumi. “We only have a month left and nothing’s ready yet.  Should we just cancel this year…?”

“Uh… Looks like we don’t get a choice.” Masao turned to the students as Ms. Saeko and Nurse Natsumi began talking. “It’ll be better if we just get this over with.”

“Mikage Hospital…” Kei helped Reiji stand as he thought. “That’s far from here. It’s to the northeast… If we head north from the school, go all the way to the third ward… Then take a right at the Mikage Ruins… It might just be easier to wander until we get there. I doubt you'll remember the instructions.”

“Well, I dunno about you guys but I’d go stir crazy being cooped up in the hospital for a year, so…” Yuka pumped a fist in the air. “Let’s go cheer her up!”

Reiji knew that they should go there right away, that it would be important to make sure they were okay and that Eriko wasn’t too lonely… But he found himself wandering the halls instead, going into any and every place he could find. It turned out to not be a totally bad idea, though. Yuko wanted them to deliver Eriko a message about one of her books, so… That was something, right?

“Hey, Rei-chan…” Yuka put a hand on Reiji’s arm. “How long as we gonna wander the halls?”

“Seriously, though.” Masao picked up his pace to walk right next to Reiji. “I want to go home at  _ some  _ point today!”

“And Eri--” Kei swallowed hard and looked away. “We told Ms. Saeko we would go check in with Eriko.”

“We’ll go soon, I just want to see if I can find Yukino and the others. See if they have more to add to what happened. After we passed out something could’ve happened, right?” What a crappy excuse...

“Well… I’d rather we just go, but okay.” Yuka sighed and shook her head. “But try and be quick about it.”

“Got it…” Reiji ducked into the Faculty Office and who should be there but Maki and Hidehiko. Of course, when Reiji was using them as an excuse they showed right up.

Well, the best he could do was approach them, then. He walked up to Maki, placing a hand on her shoulder and clearing his throat. Maki jumped a bit, but looked pretty damn happy to see he was okay. “Reiji!”

“Hey Maki, so…”

“Don’t worry, I told Ms. Saeko about what happened, but… It looks like Yukino already left campus…” Maki gave an awkward laugh. “And seeing as I doubt Hidehiko could give a good explanation, I did most of the talking.”

“Hey…!” Hidehiko poked Maki in the side. “I totally helped explain it! But man… Yukino is good at bolting when it comes to things like this, huh?”

“Come on…” Yuka grabbed Reiji by the ear and pulled him away. “Maki and Brown didn’t faint, so they don’t have to go to the hospital… I kinda wonder why we were the only ones, though…?”

“Is there a difference between us and them, maybe?” He couldn’t exactly think of anything, but…

“Well, the ones who didn’t faint, hadn’t they played “Persona” before?” Yuka tilted her head to the side in thought. “So Maki, Brown, and Yukki…”

Reiji furrowed his brow. “I--”

“Oh, it’s you Reiji. Come here for a minute.” A teacher waved him over and, as soon as he was closer, cleared his throat. “I hear someone keeps coming in and out of the open room on the second floor. Are you doing it?”

“No sir, I haven’t gone in that room once.” Reiji shook his head and frowned. Did he seem like the kind of guy to go in there…?

“Hmm?” The teacher furrowed his brow. “If it's not you, then who's been going into that classroom...?”

“Looks like you’re being mistaken for some other student, Reiji…” Masao put a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe that’s what you get for wearing your school uniform like that.” He was talking about the choker and the half open uniform, Reiji was sure.

“I’m more curious about who keeps going in and out…” Kei tapped his chin. “Either of you know?”

“No, but I’m gonna find out.” Reiji would rather not be blamed for this kind of thing, it could lead to more people getting involved.

“Oh come on, don’t be like that!” Yuka followed after, having to run thanks to Reiji’s long strides. “It’ll be useless, Rei-chan. It’ll be better to just leave it be, besides, what are the chances of someone being in there right now?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll wait there for them if I have to.” Reiji knew they had other things they had to do, but he wasn’t going to be mistaken for this person anymore, dammit.

“We don’t have time for this--” Yuka was about to tug Reiji out of the classroom when she noticed the other figure in the room. “Holy shit, someone is here.”

“Wait a second…” Kei peeked over Reiji’s shoulder. “That’s Naoya Toudou, from our class.”

“Why is he here?” Reiji frowned and took a step forward, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, you’re the person people keep mistaking for me… Can you make who you are more obvious--”

Reiji’s voice caught in his throat when Naoya turned to face him. He hadn’t realize that they were about the same height and, well, with how close Reiji had gotten they were basically nose to nose. The guy looked pissed at being interrupted and, well… All Reiji could really do to not jump back in fear was focus on what seemed to be a scar under his bangs and eyeliner on his face.

“Hm…” Without an actual word spoken, Naoya pushed through Reiji and the rest of the group, leaving the four of them to stand in silence for a minute.

Masao scoffed. “Someone’s standoffish.”

“Can you really say that…?” Kei narrowed his eyes. “I feel like you can’t…”

“Shut it, Nanjo!” Masao rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “I wonder what he was thinking about here…”

“He was probably just being gloomy…” Kei thought for a moment. “Then again, for all we know he’s the kind of guy who sings in the shower. Kind of like how Reiji does magic in his free time.”

“I just find it weird that he transferred here right after they finished with the SEBEC building…” Yuka shook her head. “Besides, we need to get to the hospital. Rei-chan looks super pale, so I’m sure he--”

“There’s more classrooms to go into. We’re gonna see if anyone knows something about that Naoya guy.” Reiji didn’t want to let this go. “I wanna learn more about him.”

“Geeze, Rei-chan..” Yuka let out a sigh. “Now isn’t the time. Besides, I thought Brown was the one who would fall for guys super quick.”

“It’s nothing like that, Yuka! I just… There seems to be something up with him and…” Reiji found himself scratching at his own head scar. “I wanna know what it is.”

No one said anything, possibly because they noticed Reiji’s constant scratching the old wound. Well… It looked like he would get his way, at least for a little while, then. There might come a point where Yuka dragged him to the hospital by the ear, but for now… He was going to find out something about Naoya, even if it killed him.

...Too bad for him, nothing had really come from talking to anyone else in the school (Kei had just gotten in an argument with some student about graffiti and the like). Still, there might be someone around in the town that he could… Just so happen to talk to that would give him more information, right? He would just have to act casually to make sure Yuka didn’t call him out on it. Last thing he needed was her commenting on it again.

So out the gate of the school they went, only to be stopped by a woman dressed like a maid. She seemed nice enough, but then… “Young master!”

“T...Tendo!”

The maid (Tendo, apparently) looked at the group and sniffled, dabbing at tears with a handkerchief. “Master Massy is leaving the school with a crowd of friends…! I’m… I’m so happy to see this…!”

“Master… Massy?” Kei raised an eyebrow and shot Masao a look. “Did she just…?”

“T-Tendou…!” Masao was going red in the fact with embarrassment. “I told you not to call me that around people, you dummy!”

“Did you just call her “dummy”?” Kei let out a snort. “I’d expect you to use a word like idiot…”

“N-No, I, ah... Oh, shut up, Nanjo!” He sent Kei a glare before looking back to Tendo. “Look, Tendo, I don’t need a ride today! Just… Go back without me, and I’ll catch up later!”

“Oh, my! Will you be going out on the town with your friends, young master?” Tendo tilted her head to the side.

“We’re just swinging by the hospital! And stop calling me that!” Masao was going really red in the cheeks now.

“The hospital?! My lord! I hope you haven’t hurt yourself, master Massy!”

At that point, Yuka and Reiji couldn’t hold in their laugher, both turning away as giggles and chuckles erupted for them. Reiji felt bad about laughing, really, but… He’d never seen Masao act like this before, so… It was hard not to react.

“I’m done! Come on, let’s go Reiji…” Masao turned to look at his maid. “Tendo… Do  _ not _ follow us, got it?”

“Come on, Masao…” Reiji grabbed him by the arm and started walking. “We’re gonna stop by a few other places to make sure she doesn’t tail us… You know? Can’t follow us to the hospital if we duck into a few buildings.”

Yuka, finally coming down from her laughing fit, glared at him. “Rei-chan…”

“It’ll just be a few to help out Masao! Don’t give me that.” Reiji held up his hands in mock surrender. “We’ll be quick!”

And quick they kind of were… At least, Reiji would call it quick. They really only stopped in a casino, Reiji listening to Kei and some of his buddies talk about a guy “trespassing” on their turf, before he found something that really interested him.

That woman browsing the aisles… She looked kind of familiar? Was she related to Naoya, maybe? He almost wanted to ask, but wouldn’t it be weird for him to approach the poor lady out of nowhere…

“Oh, do you go to St. Hermelin?” Luckily for him, she approached him first. “That’s the school my son attends… His name is Naoya Toudou, do you know him?”

“I do.”

“Oh, so you know him?” She seemed more than a little excited by that.

“Yeah, we’re actually in the same class…”

“Ah, you’re in the same class?” She thought for a moment, arms crossed against her chest. “It may be selfish of me to ask this, but could you make friends with Naoya?”

Reiji scratched his cheek as he thought on the question. He wasn’t sure he was a fan of Naoya from what little he’d seen, but… His mother seemed so hopeful. “Sure, I can do my best.”

“Really? Thank you! Please feel free to come visit him at home sometime!” She smiled and pushed something into his hands and thanked him for giving Naoya a chance before going back to her shopping.

Reiji wasn’t sure he’d really learned anything, but… It seemed Naoya’s mother cared for him. Huh, that was probably nice… He wished his mother was a little more caring sometimes, but after what happened with Takahisa… Expecting more was a bad idea.

“Let’s go, guys.”

The three followed after him without much of a word and, without thinking about it, Reiji found himself wandering off the trail to the hospital yet again and into the abandoned factory. Maybe his trying to not think about parents had pushed him to think back to the last thing he heard before talking to Naoya’s mother…? Which would be Kei’s buddies talking about their turf.

“Wow Nanjo… This place is shabbier than I thought it’d be.” Masao ran a finger across a wall with a grimace. He turned his head and paused. “Wait… Is that one of your… Friends?”

“Huh?” Kei frowned when he caught sight of the other person. “Naoya… You’re the trespasser, then? Why are you hanging around here?”

Naoya turned to look at them, making a face when he realized that he’d already had a run in with them that day. “I could ask you the same thing… But you’d all be better off staying away from here, unless you want to die.”

Kei frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Naoya rolled his eyes and pushed past, saying nothing else and ignoring Kei and Reiji’s yell for him to wait for just a minute.

“Huh…” Yuka blinked a few times. “I wonder why he’s stalking around town…”

Reiji shook his head. “I dunno…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter we finally get to see Eriko _and_ the inital groups' Awakenings/possibly Maki's Awakening?


End file.
